Memory Map: A User’s Guide – Part 3

Updated for Memory Map v6 – December 2015

The Icon Ribbon

Part 3 of this parallel user’s guide covers the function of the Icon Toolbar and tries to explain some of the new names and terms that we are going to need to get to grips with when using MM.

Let’s have a look at the various icons we have to play with along the top of the screen. The icon ribbon is broken down into three main groups.

The “Standard” Icons

Open Map: The first icon allows you to bring up the Map List – but we’ve already found an easier way to select maps using the right click button and zooming all the way out on an atlas.

Sync Scrolling: The second icon allows you to have two maps on the screen at once, probably showing different scales or showing aerial data on one and the OS map on the other one. I’ve never really found a good use for this, so I don’t really use this mode, you’ll have to give it a try and see how it works for you.

Properties: This icon opens the properties window. The Properties window stores information about the routes, tracks and waypoints in memory at the moment. More on this later.

Undo and Redo: There are now multiple levels of Undo provided with MM – so you can step back through previous deletes, moves, renames, etc. The usual Windows keyboard shortcut of CTRL + Z works here.

Zoom in and Out: As you would expect – but use the mouse, its much easier.

Back and Forward: Just like your Browser’s back button, this takes you back to previous map positions, lots of history here, but only for the current session of MM

Find: Also activated with the standard Windows keyboard shortcut of CTRL+F which is much easier to use than the menu icon.

Read-out at Cursor: Allows you to switch off the data provided at your mouse cursor. Personally this is always on for me.

The “Planning” Icons

Print Options: More details later about printing

3D World: Turns the flat map into a 3D world – showing the way the world looks. Opens in a new window and is very cool (covered in a later part of this guide)

Route: Starts a new Route – more later

Mark: Allows you to add a new Mark (also called Waypoints) – more later

Track: Starts a new Track – more later

Text: Allows you to add a note to the map – not really used by me I must admit.

Digital Map Shop: Allows you to buy more maps on-line, straight from the program and download them directly (not used by me, so not covered in this guide)

The “Navigation” Icons

Lock onto GPS: Only works if you have a GPS attached to your PC.

Mark Position: Only works if you have a GPS attached to your PC.

As tablet and PC technology converge, these icons may well become useful – MM v6 is supported on Windows 10, so the PC edition may well end up being used on a portable device such as a Microsoft Surface, which has GPS location services built into it.

MM Names and Terms

The different terms used in MM can be confusing, so let’s have a quick look at the most obvious and common ones.

Route: A route is a walk you create using the mouse pointer on the screen – by default these are blue lines with blue dots (waypoints) marking all the turns and junctions. Arrows between the dots show the direction of the route.

Track: Although you can create a track manually, these are normally recorded by your GPS and imported into MM after the fact. They show the path you covered while you were walking. By default these are red, but as with most items in MM, you can change the default appearance using the Properties box and apply this change to all future instances of that item.

Tracks & Routes shown in the MM interface

The blue route is a walk I planned. The red route shows a walk I recorded with the GPS and then downloaded into MM. See the arrows along the red route – these show the direction of travel and are 5 minutes apart in recorded time. I cover Routes and Tracks in more detail in a later section of this guide.

Waypoint: A waypoint is normally part of a route – a route is made up of multiple waypoints. Each blue dot above is a waypoint. A waypoint is no use on its own. You can name waypoint individually if you wish – or you can allow MM to allocate a name automatically – this will normally be “WPxxx” where xxx is at least a four digit number starting at 0001 – i.e. WP0001

Mark: This is a point you create on the map – it can represent anything you choose. MM comes with a set of built-in icons so you can create a Mark and then change the icon for it to represent a camp site, car park, B&B, etc, all sorts of things. Some examples are shown below.

Some example Marks on a map

You can choose to show or hide the name associated with a Mark, from the map and you can make them visible and not-visible if you wish (more on Marks in a later section).

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About the author

I'm fast approaching my dotage it seems, with various bits of my body refusing to work in the way they used to, but I still manage to drag my sorry load up a few hills every now and again. Lover of the Yorkshire Dales, fell-walker, trig-pointer, peak-bagger, Wainwright-er & Pennine Way author. I have a passion for long paths, malt whisky, fast cars & Man City. I love getting comments in the blog, so please don't be shy, stop by and say hello! You can email me at stuart at lonewalker dot net